Breast Cancer Studies To Be Presented At American Society Of Clinical Oncology Meeting

Main Category: Breast Cancer
Article Date: 20 May 2008 - 8:00 PDT

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Several recently released breast cancer-related studies are scheduled to be presented later this month at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology. Summaries appear below.

~ Herceptin/Tykerb: The combination of breast cancer drugs Herceptin and Tykerb delayed the time it took for breast cancer to worsen in a study of 300 women with very advanced cancers who had stopped responding to other treatments, according to a report released Thursday, the AP/Miami Herald. The study, led by Joyce O'Shaughnessy of Baylor Health Care System's Charles A. Sammons Cancer Center, found that women who received the drug combination survived an average of 12 weeks without their cancer worsening, compared with eight weeks for those receiving only Tykerb. The study was sponsored by GlaxoSmithKline, which makes Tykerb. Herceptin, marketed by Genentech and Roche, and Tykerb both aim to block the protein HER 2, which is produced in abnormally large quantities in about one-fourth of all breast cancers. Herceptin blocks the protein on the cell's surface, and Tykerb blocks it inside the cell (Marchione, AP/Miami Herald, 5/16).

~ Mastectomies: A Mayo Clinic study released Thursday found that more breast cancer patients could be having mastectomies as a result of an increased usage of MRIs, which are capable of finding additional tumors, USA Today reports (Szabo, USA Today, 5/16). The study of 5,463 breast cancer patients at the clinic found that the number of mastectomies performed increased by 13 percentage points from 2003 to 2006. The study, led by oncologist Matthew Goetz, also found that the number of MRIs for breast cancer patients doubled during that time period (Manier, Chicago Tribune, 5/16). Julie Gralow, a University of Washington-Seattle cancer specialist, said, "We really don't have a lot of data on why" the trend has occurred. She said it could be that newer tests such as MRIs are finding more cancers or finding suspicious spots that patients want removed for peace of mind (Marchione, AP/Minneapolis Star Tribune, 5/16). Although it is uncertain whether the trend among the clinic's patients is representative of the nation, "there is some evidence pointing to a wider tendency," the New York Times reports (Pollack, New York Times, 5/16).

~ Vitamin D: Breast cancer patients with lower levels of Vitamin D are 94% more likely to have their cancer spread than those with normal levels and 73% more likely to die, according to a study released Thursday, Reuters/Boston Globe reports. Vitamin D is made when the skin receives sunlight. For the study, Richard Schilsky, a University of Chicago researcher and ASCO president-elect, and colleagues looked at the records of 512 women with an average age of 50 who had newly diagnosed breast cancer and were treated at three University of Toronto hospitals between 1989 and 1995. Researchers followed the women until 2006. About 24% of the patients had adequate levels of vitamin D when diagnosed with the disease, meaning they had more than 50 nanomoles per liter of blood. After 20 years, the cancer did not spread or come back in 83% of the women with normal vitamin D levels, and 85% of those women were still alive. Of women with insufficient levels, 69% were cancer-free after 10 years, and 74% were alive (Fox, Reuters/Boston Globe, 5/16).

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